Nihonbashi, from the series Thirty-six Views of the Eastern Capital (Tōto sanjūrokkei)

Nihonbashi, from Thirty-six Views of the Eastern Capital (Toto sanjurokkei), is Utagawa Hiroshige's 1861 (posthumously published) treatment of the bridge that served as the symbolic and physical center of the Edo road network. Nihonbashi marked kilometer zero for the five great highways and figured at the start of nearly every Tokaido series Hiroshige designed. By the time of this late vertical-format sheet the bridge had been drawn by Hiroshige countless times, but the new perspective and the oban tate format give the subject fresh weight. The composition places the timber span of Nihonbashi prominently in the lower register, with travelers, porters, and merchants moving across it, while the canal opens behind toward the white-walled storehouses of the riverside and the silhouette of Edo Castle's roofs in the distance. The Toto sanjurokkei series, modeled in title on earlier Thirty-six Views projects, gave Hiroshige and his pupils an opportunity to revisit the iconic skyline of the eastern capital in a unified format. As an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print, the Nihonbashi design exemplifies the artist's careful balance between civic monument and the bustle of mercantile life. The Harvard Art Museums impression preserves the bright blues of the canal and the careful blocking of the bridge's timber, qualities that distinguish good early impressions.